Restoring My Soul

I mentioned that I have been taking some art classes this summer. 

I have been just loving learning different art techniques and practicing techniques that I used to love doing.  Mostly these have consisted of watercolor painting and collaging.  I used to do collaging a lot and gave it up when I started college.  I just forgot about it and never really picked it up again.  Watercolors have been something I have grown to love since college, but I haven't done much at all since I started teaching.

Anyone who knows me knows that I do not have a difficult time with words.  I self-proclaim my abilities to discuss, chat, and explain with my words in all forms.  I love to write, I love to talk, and I love to analyze words.

This being said, one thing most people may or may or may not realize about me is that I often hold my deepest, dearest, most sensitive thoughts and feelings very close to my inner-most part of my heart, never to be discussed or written. 

Art has always been a way for me to express the things I cannot say.  Those deep, dear, close, hard things are so much easier for me to understand when I can put some creativity into expressing them.  I used to believe I wasn't creative, artistic, or "crafty," because I have sisters and a mom who are all highly creative, artistic, and "crafty" and I never seemed to grasp onto the same kinds of skills and talents they all seem to share.  Since my youth, I have learned to believe that I have creative and artistic abilities that just happen to be different than the ones I always wished for.  And to that end, I have been so happy to spend some time enveloped by art this summer. 

When my heart has something to say, it comes out in my art, if I let it.  These are some of the projects I have done in my online art/therapy class this summer in which I am really learning what my heart has to say.  I don't ever expect my art to sell for millions, I don't even expect it to sell, but I love that it is here in my life, to remind me of the things I need to remember. 

(If anyone is interested in this method or this class, feel free to visit http://www.bravegirlsclub.com/ and look up "Soul Restoration" classes by Melody Ross. I can't say enough how wonderful this class has been for me.  I would recommend it to EVERYONE!)